Any form of browser integration can create security holes. 1zA1E0qnuoĮxtensions are just part of the problem. Srsly Avast? If you're gonna mitm chrome's SSL at least get an intern to skim your X.509 parsing before shipping it. It’s Not Just Browser Extensions: You Should Disable Other Browser Integrations, Too But antivirus companies clearly see their “security” extensions as an opportunity to dig deep into the browser and show you ads (or “product recommendations”), not just a way to keep you secure. In other words, Avast tracked all your web browsing and used it to show ads. Thankfully, Avast eventually removed SafePrice from its main browser extension.

To do this, it assigned you a unique tracking ID and sent every single web page you visited to Avast’s servers, associated with that unique ID. This feature was enabled by default, and it displayed online shopping recommendations–in other words, ads that presumably make Avast money when you click them–as you browse. Here’s one we’ve covered before: Avast installs an “Avast! Online Security” browser extension when you install the main security suite, and they later added a feature named “SafePrice” to the extension in an update. RELATED: Avast Antivirus Was Spying On You with Adware (Until This Week)

Example 3: Avast’s Online Security Extension Once Included Ads and Tracking And when it does, McAfee and Norton can force their browser extensions on Edge users and stop redirecting them to the old-and-out-of-date-IE. Thankfully, Microsoft Edge will soon support Chrome-style browser extensions.

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